From PCT mile 653.3 to 1157.8 Total: 504.5 miles 5/25-6/1, 7/2-7/17, 8/3-8/19
Walker Pass to Donner Pass in Three Easy Installments
I spent a lot of time in the Spring and Summer of 2024 hiking over five hundred miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. I also spread those miles and days out over a long timespan, from the end of May to the middle of August. I hiked a total of 41 days, but there were quite a few zero days and driving days as well.
Hiking the PCT Sierra Section was one of the best and most memorable treks of my life. Of course, I had already hiked 350 miles of it before this year, in smaller segments, during my limited Summer vacations, spanning roughly fifteen years. This gave me a lasting love for the High Sierra, and the thought of hiking it all yet again was an enticing one. Last year, in 2023, I attempted to do a full PCT thru-hike from Mexico to Canada, but I ultimately failed due to a combination of foot injury and the monster snowpack that year. “Why hike the PCT if you can’t do the High Sierra?” I reasoned. I’m in my mid-sixties, and winter mountaineering is (realistically) too dangerous for my blood. I backpacked and camped in the snow plenty of times as a twenty year old, but those days were long gone. Besides, I wanted to enjoy myself, not partake in a months-long ice-bound sufferfest. That’s why I quit and only completed the Southern California Desert Section in 2023, all 650 miles of it. I figured that I’d save the Central California Sierra Section for 2024. Which I did! And it was great! Best decision ever.
Luckily, 2024 was a “normal” snow year in the Sierra. As a veteran Sierra backpacker, I knew what this meant. Everything would melt in May and June, mosquitos would be everywhere in June and July, and August would be perfect, but with fewer wildflowers and a chance of wildfire smoke.
So I made my plans. The first one was simple: Fifteen mile days, day after day. I used the Far Out app and my CalTopo mapping account to help me create a night-by-night itinerary. I was perfectly able to hike fifteen mile days by the end of last year’s Desert Section trek, so I went with that. Even though ten miles per day was what I swore by during all those earlier years. There’s a lot of tough trail in the High Sierra, with stone steps and big elevation changes. I decided to dial it back to twelve per day, and mapped that out. Not bad.
Later on this Spring, as I watched the snow melting, all too slowly, via Sentinel Satellite mapping, I realized that I needed yet another plan. I also had my fortieth wedding anniversary coming up in late July. That compounded the difficulty.
The final plan came into existence when I decided to split the 500 miles into three large pieces:
- Walker Pass to Trail Pass – roughly 100 miles, hiked in late May
- Trail Pass to Mammoth Lakes – roughly 150 miles, hiked in early July
- Mammoth Lakes to Donner Pass – roughly 250 miles, hiked in early August
For Part 1, in late May, I would hike until I reached the snow line but also avoid excessive Summer heat at the lower elevations, and go home to wait for more snow to melt. For Part 2, in early July, I would go back and enjoy the High Sierra region, and return home for my anniversary. For Part 3, in August, I would complete the northern half of the trek. Most of that final part would be previously unhiked trail, and I liked that idea.
And that’s what happened. My plans actually worked! I managed to stash (or mail) my food resupplies to the places where I could get them easily, without breaking stride and spending any zero days at motels. Except in between the main parts, of course. But does staying at home for weeks count as zero days? I’m talking about resupplies while hiking, and only the one at Onion Valley took an extra night, which I spent in a tent on trail.
You can see what the Sierra Section looks like on my CalTopo Map. It shows the exact locations where I camped, and plenty more, like all the passes along the way, even the ones the PCT doesn’t bother to mention on their website. I put it together using both the PCTA’s and HalfMile’s GPS data files. Personally, I like CalTopo best as a mapping app, because it delivers the easiest and most functional user interface. I also use the Far Out app, because of the crowdsourced info about water and camping locations. Both are good, but if you have to choose, Far Out is absolutely required for all PCT hikers. Bring a paper map, sure, but don’t go crazy and only carry a map and compass. Use the best tools you can buy to get the best results on your hike.
Included here is the elevation profile of the PCTA’s Sierra Section GPS Track. This was also generated by CalTopo. You can see how it starts down near 5000 feet elevation at Walker Pass and ramps up to some serious High Sierra Shenanigans between 100 miles and 300 miles. That’s the best part of the whole thing! But I still appreciated (and suffered through) the other tall elevation spikes. And deep valleys, too.
As a “Type A” hiker personality, I had to include in this summary a spreadsheet showing my daily toil on the trail. All elevation gains and losses were generated by the Far Out app as I lay in camp each night. Exceptions are when I hiked off-trail, such as visits to Onion Valley and Mammoth Lakes, where I used CalTopo’s mileage and elevation data. These numbers are amusing, as they are generated by mathematical algorithms using vectors from topographic projections. In my opinion, they overdo some parts, especially along the sides of steep canyons, and underdo the reality on the ground, where the trail bounces up and down less than the distance between topo lines. Those lines are also subject to the error of cartographers. Not everything in the mountains has a perfect-to-the-nearest-inch radar-reflective value in the USGS datastore. One additional data point that I collected was the number of “steps” that I took each day, according to my smartwatch. All told, I took far more than a million steps this past Summer! One step at a time.
| Day | Page Name | PCT Mile | Miles Hiked | Up (feet) | Down (feet) | Steps | Date |
| PCT Sierra Section 2024 | |||||||
| 0 | Part 1: Southern Sierra | 653.3 | 05/24/25 | ||||
| 1 | North from Walker Pass | 669.9 | 16.6 | 3609 | 3448 | 37408 | 05/25/25 |
| 2 | Trail Magic at Chimney Creek Campground | 682.1 | 12.1 | 2730 | 2139 | 33048 | 05/26/25 |
| 3 | Domeland Wilderness | 698.1 | 16 | 3035 | 2713 | 39226 | 05/27/25 |
| 4 | Kennedy Meadows | 706.5 | 9.8 | 1102 | 754 | 22772 | 05/28/25 |
| 5 | South Fork Kern River | 717.2 | 11.2 | 2566 | 960 | 28767 | 05/29/25 |
| 6 | Olancha Peak | 729.3 | 11.6 | 2779 | 1586 | 29916 | 05/30/25 |
| 7 | Gomez Meadow to Dutch Meadow | 744.2 | 14.9 | 2644 | 1719 | 34390 | 05/31/25 |
| 8 | Horseshoe Meadows and Snow | 746.5 | 4.5 | 533 | 663 | 11926 | 06/01/25 |
| 9 | Part 2: High Sierra | 07/01/25 | |||||
| 10 | Chicken Spring Lake | 752 | 7.7 | 1594 | 354 | 22213 | 07/02/25 |
| 11 | Rock Creek | 762.9 | 11 | 1483 | 2320 | 28453 | 07/03/25 |
| 12 | Guitar Lake | 767.5 | 8.4 | 2232 | 1006 | 23341 | 07/04/25 |
| 13 | Mount Whitney Summit | 768.2 | 13.7 | 3405 | 4123 | 35103 | 07/05/25 |
| 14 | North to Forester Pass | 779.9 | 11.7 | 3133 | 1401 | 30518 | 07/06/25 |
| 15 | Forester Pass to Kearsarge Lakes | 789.7 | 11.9 | 2189 | 3702 | 32180 | 07/07/25 |
| 16 | Onion Valley Resupply | 791 | 13.8 | 3881 | 3830 | 35978 | 07/08/25 |
| 17 | Glen Pass, Rae Lakes, and Woods Creek | 802.7 | 11.6 | 1913 | 3698 | 32588 | 07/09/25 |
| 18 | Pinchot Pass to Upper Basin | 815 | 12.3 | 3760 | 2096 | 34265 | 07/10/25 |
| 19 | Mather Pass and Palisade Creek | 828.6 | 13.6 | 1437 | 4308 | 34649 | 07/11/25 |
| 20 | Le Conte Canyon to Muir Pass | 839.8 | 11.1 | 4075 | 141 | 27930 | 07/12/25 |
| 21 | Muir Pass to Evolution Valley | 853.6 | 13.9 | 354 | 3842 | 35590 | 07/13/25 |
| 22 | Muir Trail Ranch Resupply | 865.4 | 13.7 | 3185 | 1427 | 31786 | 07/14/25 |
| 23 | Selden Pass to Mono Creek | 879.9 | 14.5 | 1854 | 4180 | 37666 | 07/15/25 |
| 24 | Silver Pass to Purple Lake | 894.8 | 14.9 | 4701 | 2608 | 39299 | 07/16/25 |
| 25 | Zero Days at Mammoth Lakes | 904.5 | 13.4 | 1776 | 2771 | 30659 | 07/17/25 |
| 26 | Part 3: Northern Sierra | 08/02/25 | |||||
| 27 | Reds Meadow Resort | 907.9 | 7.2 | 760 | 2119 | 19252 | 08/03/25 |
| 28 | Devils Postpile to Garnet Lake | 922 | 13.4 | 3906 | 1841 | 37804 | 08/04/25 |
| 29 | Donohue Pass and Lyell Canyon | 937.2 | 15.1 | 2526 | 3384 | 40807 | 08/05/25 |
| 30 | Tuolumne Meadows to Glen Aulin | 952.3 | 15.1 | 1345 | 1476 | 37584 | 08/06/25 |
| 31 | Matterhorn Canyon and Benson Pass | 967.6 | 15.3 | 3684 | 2320 | 37676 | 08/07/25 |
| 32 | Northern Yosemite Washboard | 983.6 | 16 | 3143 | 5518 | 41721 | 08/08/25 |
| 33 | Falls Creek to Dorothy Lake | 997.6 | 14.1 | 2822 | 1142 | 34342 | 08/09/25 |
| 34 | Yosemite to Sonora Pass | 1018.3 | 20.7 | 3615 | 3402 | 46966 | 08/10/25 |
| 35 | North from Sonora Pass | 1029.2 | 11 | 1929 | 2720 | 28284 | 08/11/25 |
| 36 | Carson-Iceberg Wilderness | 1042.7 | 13.6 | 2726 | 3022 | 31633 | 08/12/25 |
| 37 | Ebbetts Pass | 1058.6 | 16.1 | 3169 | 2963 | 37876 | 08/13/25 |
| 38 | Mokelumne Wilderness | 1074.4 | 15.8 | 2638 | 2972 | 36561 | 08/14/25 |
| 39 | Carson Pass to Echo Summit | 1089.5 | 15.1 | 2441 | 3045 | 35940 | 08/15/25 |
| 40 | Echo Lake and the Desolation Wilderness | 1104.4 | 14.9 | 2641 | 1913 | 34685 | 08/16/25 |
| 41 | Dicks Pass to Richardson Lake | 1119.8 | 15.4 | 2096 | 2992 | 36155 | 08/17/25 |
| 42 | Granite Chief Wilderness | 1139 | 19.3 | 2841 | 2972 | 41547 | 08/18/25 |
| 43 | North to Donner Pass | 1157.8 | 19.4 | 3917 | 3888 | 45372 | 08/19/25 |
| 44 | Heading Home | 08/20/25 | |||||
| PCT Sierra Section Completed | |||||||
| TOTALS | 504.5 | 551.4 | 106169 | 103478 | 1350208 | ||
| Average | 13.4 | 2589 | 2524 | 32932 |
Anyway, the more interesting numbers are down at the bottom, in the totals and averages. I hiked over 550 miles out there, mostly solo, but I only hiked 13 or so per day. Some days were longer, and others shorter. I also climbed and descended over one hundred thousand feet. That’s about twenty miles straight up! And down. I didn’t include the time spent per day, because it varied depending on how I felt, or how my feet felt. In general, I hiked anywhere from nine to thirteen hours per day (including rests). I’m not that fast either. I simply wake up early and keep on trudging along. I also spend a lot of time taking photos and videos, More than almost everybody, I’m sure. But that’s just me.
If you want to know what gear I brought, check out my Intro Page, where there is yet another Type A Spreadsheet. This gear list was dialed in during 2023, when I hiked 650 miles in the Desert Section north of the Mexican Border. It works, and I treated everything with the respect it deserved, so none of it failed me. That’s good gear. But you can’t abuse this ultralight stuff, as it can be fragile. Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.
This year, I also stayed on top of any foot issues that arose. Yes, I got a couple of blisters, but I used tape and a change in gait to cure them before they got worse. It worked. Unlike in 2023, when I had to leave the trail for a week due to severe blisters. I learned my lesson then, and it paid off now.
All told, it was one of the better Summer’s I’ve ever experienced. I met new people and saw new places. I ate a lot of boring noodles and bland oatmeal, and snacked on too many Skittles and Cosmic Brownies. But I wouldn’t change a thing. True, I lost about twenty pounds over the course of forty days, so that when I got home and looked in the mirror I saw an old man with loose skin. It didn’t matter that my muscles were tough and lean and mean. If I was still twenty that extra skin might’ve been more taut, but I can’t change my age. Only my attitude.
And last of all, I’d like to thank my wife, Vicki, for helping me with much of the car shuttling, and for putting up with my endless planning and exuberance. We’ve been married for forty years, and it wasn’t easy to do this solo. I’m hoping that next Summer we can return to backpacking together again.
For an interactive topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For more photos and videos of the trek see my Flickr Album Pages:
Section G, Section H1, Section H2, Section I, Section J, and Section K
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